Sowing the seeds of change, Chief Minister Kamal Nath is leading the effort to expand croplands, enhance quality and quantity of yield to ensure fast development of farming communities in Madhya Pradesh.
Announcing a huge farm loan waiver even before assuming office a year ago, Nath has followed up with back to back schemes to bolster the farming sector which contributes nearly a quarter of the Sstate GDP.
The schemes launched over the year have been met with optimism from farmers as the new systematic plan will help control spiralling production costs and thus ensure that the sector continues to remain profitable despite an upward trend in prices.
The farm loan waiver disbursements scheme is set to result in 12 lakh farmers benefitting to the tune of Rs 11,675 crore while its initial stage, concluded earlier this year, culminated with the state government writing off loans amounting to Rs. 7,154 crore benefitting over 20 lakh farmers.
In an effort to bring down production costs the state government is now providing electricity at a 50 percent reduced tariff to farmers for the power consumed by agricultural pumps of up to 10 horsepower. Farmers developing their own seeds can now avail free of cost examination of their seeds. Farmers can further expect stable prices for their wheat produce even in case of a bumper crop in the state.
Profitability for Corn and Soyabean growers has also been ensured by extending to them the benefits of Bhavantar scheme which pays them the difference between the official Minimum Support Price (MSP) and Model Price at which the crops are sold. The current Bhavantar benchmark price is Rs 160 higher than that fixed by the central government.
Highlighting the efficiency of state government efforts, officials at the state agriculture department point towards a considerable upswing in the sowing acreage during the Kharif season and are optimistic of the trend continuing in the Rabi season.
While the acreage of Kharif sowing grew from 132.97 lakh hectares in 2018 to 136.99 lakh hectares in 2019. Similarly, the target sowing acreage for 2019 Rabi season has been set at 119.18 lakh hectares, an increase of over 2.5 lakh hectares over the previous year. Considerable expansion has also been recorded in the organic farming acreage which now stands at 2.13 lakh hectares with the same being promoted to 3828 clusters and groups. Organic cotton is a promising sector with Madhya Pradesh accounting for nearly 35 percent of the total organic cotton production in the world.
An ongoing pilot project is testing soil health from a model village in each development block, samples from nearly a lakh of villages have been analysed and soil health cards have been issued to around one lakh farmers.
All necessary steps have been initiated by the Kamal Nath Government to ensure a timely and steady supply of Urea and Fertilisers to farmers in the ongoing season.
Political observers in Bhopal say the chief minister’s efforts seem to be geared towards restructuring farm economics. They exude confidence that sustained efforts in the direction may soon see the state reap a rich economic harvest.